The Vatoussa Art School
Vatoussa is a tiny village situated on the Northwest side of the island of Lesvos in Greece. Tracie re-located there in 2013 with her partner and daughter who was then 3 years old. She wanted to aid the integration of her family into village life and also share her skills and knowledge of the Arts with the community.
With the support of Ann Welch who had previously run icon-painting workshops with the children and the resident school teacher Niki, Tracie approached the Mayor of the village Kirios Avil to undertake a series of weekly workshops in the ‘metamorphosis’ or village hall. The Village donated art materials and Tracie and Niki donated their time running age differentiated workshops for 3-18 year olds with some adults. Tracie’s daughter has attended the workshops since they started.
Since this time Tracie is no longer a permanent resident, however her commitment to the arts in Vatoussa persists and when in Vatoussa the workshops continue. In June 2017 Tracie is running an Art Competition for the village, to encourage creativity and give art materials as prizes so that the children might continue to make art between her visits. Tracie does not charge for the workshops and has raised the funds for materials and prizes through the workshops she runs in Whitstable.
The village are very proud of the work made by the participants and regularly run full colour articles in their village magazine, ‘The Pulse of Vatoussa.’
